Sams Teach Yourself UNIX System Administration in 24 Hours

Dave Taylor is a popular writer, teacher, and speaker focused on business and technology issues. The founder of The Internet Mall and iTrack.com, he has been involved with Unix and the Internet since 1980, having created the popular Elm Mail System and Embot mail autoresponder. A prolific author, his most recent books include Learning Unix for Mac OS X, Sams Teach Yourself Unix in 24 Hours, Creating Cool HTML 4.0 Web Pages, Dynamic HTML Weekend Crash Course, and The e*Auction Insider. Previous positions include research scientist at HP Laboratories and senior reviews editor of SunWorld magazine. He has contributed software to the official 4.4 release of Berkeley Unix (BSD), and his programs are found in all versions of Linux and other popular Unix variants. Dave has a bachelorÕs degree in computer science, a masterÕs degree in educational computing, and is working on an MBA. He teaches business and technology-related courses both in the physical world through the University of Colorado at Boulder, and online with the University of Phoenix. His e-mail address has been the same for over 15 years: taylor@intuitive.com. When not typing madly on the keyboard of his Mac, DaveÕs either playing with his wife Linda and two wonderful kids, Ashley and Gareth, or out bicycling around Boulder.

(NOTE: Each chapter concludes with a Summary, Q&A, Workshop, Quiz and Answers.)

Introduction.
I. INSTALLING UNIX.

Hour 1. Installing Unix.


Unix Installation Options. Basic Red Hat Linux Installation. Installation Help Online.

II. INTRODUCTION TO THE FILESYSTEM.

Hour 2. An Unsung Resource: Unix Documentation.


The Philosophy of Digging. apropos: The Administrator's Secret Weapon. Exploring the whatis Database. Finding Commands. Digging Around in Executable Binaries.

Hour 3. Disk Usage.


Physical Disks and Partitions. A Closer Look with du. Simplifying Analysis with sort. Identifying the Biggest Files. Keeping Track of Users: diskhogs.

Hour 4. File Ownership.


Starting at the Beginning: Permission Strings. Ownership and /etc/passwd. Understanding Unix Groups and /etc/group. Using Groups to Control Access.

III. USER & PACKAGE MANAGEMENT.

Hour 5. Working with User Accounts.


Understanding the /etc/passwd File. Password Files in BSD/Mac OS X. Adding Users and the adduser Script. Adding Users in a NetInfo World.

Hour 6. Accounts Management.


Ways to Suspend User Accounts. Deleting User Accounts. Linux Account Management Tools. Solaris Account Management Tools. Password Aging.

Hour 7. Large File Management and Backups.


Shrinking Big Files with compress. The gzip Alternative. A Zippy Tour of zip. Copying Directory Trees with tar. dump and System Backups.

Hour 8. Unix Package Management.


Red Hat Package Manager and Linux. Adding New RPM Packages from the Internet. Package Management in Darwin. Package Management in Solaris.

IV. ADVANCED FILE SYSTEM TOPICS.

Hour 9. Fixing Broken Disks.


Introduction to fsck. Fixing Problems with fsck. Single-User Mode. Don't Panic!

Hour 10. Adding Disks to Your System.


Formatting Disks with fdisk. Adding a Filesystem with mke2fs. Mounting the New Disk. Fine-tuning Your /etc/fstab Configuration File.

Hour 11. Multiple Boot Configurations.


The Theory of Dual-Booting. Dual-Boot Configurations with LILO. Dual-Boot Configurations with GRUB. Other Solutions for Other Unixes.

Hour 12. Managing Disk Quotas.


Implementing a Disk-Quota Policy. Quota Nuances on Other Unixes. Creating Your Own Quota System with find.

V. PROCESS & SYSTEM CONTROLS.

Hour 13. Changing System State.


Configuring and Working with the init Process. Enabling Specific Services at Different Run Levels. Shutting Down Your System the Right Way.

Hour 14. Exploring Processes.


The Secret Life of Process Ids. Examining Processes with the ps Command. A Typical Sysadmin Task: What's artsd? Process Priorities. Zapping Stray Processes.

Hour 15. Running Jobs in the Future.


Allowing User Access to crontab. Building crontab Files. System cron Jobs in /etc. Once in the Future with at.

Hour 16. Managing Your Log Files.


Understanding Log Files. Tracking a Hacker. The httpd Log File. Trimming Log Files with logrotate. Building Your Own Log Rotation Tool.

VI. NETWORK TOPICS.

Hour 17. Basic Network Configuration.


Hooking Up a Linux Box to the Internet. Network Configuration on Other Unixes. Testing and Evaluating Connectivity.

Hour 18. Running Your Own Name Server.


The Berkeley Internet Name Domain Package. Configuring named. Working with rndc. Testing DNS Setups.

Hour 19. Running Internet Services.


The inetd Super-Daemon. Managing inetd Security with TCP Wrapper. Super-inetd: xinetd. An Example: Enabling ftp.

Hour 20. Working with E-mail.


Testing Mail Connectivity with sendmail. Mail Logs and Mail Queues. Creating sendmail Aliases. sendmail Aliases Within Mac OS X.

VII. WEB SERVER MANAGEMENT & SHELL PROGRAMMING.

Hour 21. Shell Scripting: The Administrator's Swiss Army Knife.


The Basics of Shell Scripting. Flow Control. Some Cool Examples.

Hour 22. Power Scripting with awk and Perl.


The Elegant awk Language. Basic Perl Programming. Advanced Perl Examples.

Hour 23. Introduction to the Apache Web Server.


Setting Up Your Web Server. Exploring the httpd.conf File. Testing and Tuning the Configuration.

Hour 24. Virtual Hosts with Apache.


Enabling Virtual Hosting in Apache. Keeping Your System Secure. And So Our 24 Hours Come to an End...

Index.